


The Light Is Always On You

by SkysongMA



Series: This Is Not About Love [7]
Category: Adventure Time
Genre: Human AU, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-03
Updated: 2014-07-03
Packaged: 2018-02-07 05:51:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1887327
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SkysongMA/pseuds/SkysongMA
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The phone call woke G.B. from sleep. </p><p>“Are you awake?” </p><p>G.B. frowned at the phone. He wanted to be angry and found he could not be, but at least he could sound peevish. It was petty, wanting Marshall Lee to think G.B. didn’t care, but G.B. would be the first to admit he was petty. At least where Marshall Lee was involved. “I am now.”</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Light Is Always On You

**Author's Note:**

> Marshall Lee's half of the conversation is bolded for clarity in the all-dialogue sections.

G.B. put Marshall Lee from his mind. It was not easy, but G.B. had plenty of practice.   
  
***  
  
The phone call woke G.B. from sleep.   
  
“Are you awake?”   
  
G.B. frowned at the phone. He wanted to be angry and found he could not be, but at least he could sound peevish. It was petty, wanting Marshall Lee to think G.B. didn’t care, but G.B. would be the first to admit he was petty. At least where Marshall Lee was involved. “I am now.”  
  
“Oh, shit, sorry—I didn’t realize what time it was. Fuck.”  
  
He sounded honestly sorry. G.B. found himself relenting, if only because he was pleased to know, like always, that Marshall Lee hadn’t gotten himself into serious trouble. “It’s all right.” G.B. rubbed his eyes with the back of his arm, then rolled over to grope for his glasses. He didn’t need them to talk on the phone, but it felt strange to be awake without wearing them. “It’s Friday. I don’t have school tomorrow.”  
  
“I keep losing track of what day it is,” Marshall Lee murmured, apparently to himself.   
  
G.B. wasn’t sure what to say to that. He sat up, pulling his legs against his chest.   
  
He did like to hear Marshall Lee’s voice again. It had been lonely, these last few weeks.   
  
“How is Simone?” G.B. said, when it became clear Marshall Lee was waiting.  
  
A pause. “She’s—all right, for the moment. They’re trying something experimental on her, apparently.” He let out a slow breath.  
  
G.B. found himself wondering what Marshall Lee was doing. Pushing his fingers through his hair? Worrying a mint-flavored toothpick? Maybe picking at the holes in his jeans?  
  
“Is it… that bad?” G.B. asked, a little afraid of the answer he would receive. He was bad at comforting Marshall Lee in person. However could he try to do it over the phone?  
  
But the answer came at once. “No, God, no.” Marshall Lee laughed; well, it was a sound that could be called a laugh, but in this context that didn’t really apply. “She’s just—she’s a scientist, y’know, so she said—” But there he stopped and drew in a breath.  
  
G.B. dug his fingers into his knees. He realized he wished they could talk in person and wondered if he ought to say so. Instead, he said, “Are you all right, Marshall Lee?” His voice was soft, and there was a rhythm to Marshall Lee’s voice he had never heard before.  
  
Marshall Lee swallowed. “Nah, it’s—it’s okay.” He cleared his throat. “She said if something was going to—to happen to her, she wanted to help make sure it didn’t happen to anyone else.”  
  
“Oh.” G.B. scraped for something to say. In the end he could only manage, “She sounds like a wonderful woman, Marshall Lee.”  
  
“She really is.”  
  
***  
  
At first, the calls were as infrequent as Marshall Lee’s visits, and as difficult to draw conclusions from.  
  
***  
  
 **“Have you ever been to this city, gumdrop?”**  
  
“I wish you wouldn’t call me that.”  
  
 **“Answer the question, dude.”**  
  
“No, I haven’t. I’ve never had anyone to go with. Pepper doesn’t care for traveling, and MoChro works too much.”  
  
 **“I can’t believe he lets you call him MoChro.”**  
  
“That has nothing to do with the topic at hand, Marshall Lee. What has the city to do with anything?”  
  
 **“There’s a really cool observatory. I took Simone there today. It seemed like the kind of thing you’d like. Y’know. Since you’re a nerd.”**  
  
“I don’t have to listen to this.”  
  
 **“So hang up, sugarplum.”**  
  
“I’m hanging up.”  
  
 **“No, you’re not.”**  
  
“…All right, I’m not, but only because I want to know if you got that package I sent you.”  
  
 **“Yeah, why did you send me food?”**  
  
“Because I know you aren’t eating.”  
  
 **“Why is it that even when you’re being nice to me, you’re still a dick?”**  
  
“There is no need for such language, Marshall Lee. Please be civilized.”  
  
 **“Fuck off, candy lips.”**  
  
“I am absolutely hanging up now! Try and call me sooner this time.”  
  
***  
  
 **“Hey. Listen. Bubba.”**  
  
“I am going to hang up the phone right this instant, Marshall Lee—”  
  
 **“No, no, all right, G.B. Jesus, you are such a tightwad.”**  
  
“I don’t have to spend my time listening to you insult me, you know. I have homework.”  
  
 **“All right, all right, I’m sorry. I just have another question.”**  
  
“Is it about astronomy?”  
  
 **“No.”**  
  
“…”  
  
“…”  
  
“If you aren’t going to ask me anything, Marshall Lee, then why did you call? It’s not like I can see you. Talking is currently our only option.”  
  
 **“…iwannamakeacake.”**  
  
“What part of talking is our only option did you not understand? We won’t get anywhere if you mumble, Marshall Lee.”  
  
 **“I said I want to make a cake. It’s. It’s gonna be Simone’s birthday soon, and I don’t want to just. I dunno. Buy something. Or make some shit out of a box. That’s—that’s no good.”**  
  
“…”  
  
“…”  
  
 **“Talking is currently our only option, sprinkle baby.”**  
  
“Where are you getting these nicknames?”  
  
 **“Okay, good, you didn’t actually hang up.”**  
  
“You want to make a cake. Why are you calling me?”  
  
 **“Because—I don’t know! You’re good at baking and shit. I thought maybe you could—give me some tips or something. Walk me through it.”**  
  
“Over the phone?”  
  
 **“Well, you’re there, and I’m here, so…”**  
  
“…I suppose we could do that.”  
  
 **“Heh.”**  
  
“What’s so funny?”  
  
 **“You could start a business. For hopeless bakers.”**  
  
“Don’t think that I haven’t considered it. Do you want to do it now?”  
  
 **“No! I don’t have any of the stuff yet.”**  
  
“…”  
  
“…”  
  
 **“Can you tell me what I gotta get so I can get it?”**  
  
“I suppose I could. But you have to tell me what kind you want to make first.”  
  
 **“Strawberry, duh.”**  
  
“Fine. Let me make a list.”  
  
***  
  
The next call came precisely one week after that. At first, G.B. thought it was only because Marshall Lee was ready to make the cake.  
  
***  
  
“So now that the oven is ready, you need to cream the butter and sugar—”  
  
 **“Wait, what?”**  
  
“Just put them in the mixer and beat it until it looks like paste. Like you’re making chocolate chip cookies.”  
  
 **“I never made chocolate chip cookies.”**  
  
“…”  
  
 **“Don’t tell me you’re surprised, lemon drop. Mommy dearest never had time for baking, and Simone… well, even before the diagnosis I wouldn’t really like to leave Simone alone with a stove. We ate out a lot.”**  
  
“…We should.”  
  
 **“Should what?”**  
  
“Make chocolate chip cookies. I never would have let you leave for another city if I’d known this.”  
  
 **“Aw, snickerdoodle! It’s almost like you miss me.”**  
  
“Hush now. Tell me what your butter looks like.”  
  
***  
  
But the next call comes a week later on the dot.  
  
***  
  
 **“She liked the cake, plum blossom.”**  
  
“Now you are honestly beyond the pale. And of course she liked the cake. I saw the picture you sent me. It was lovely. Why didn’t you answer the text I sent back?”  
  
 **“…I don’t like texting.”**  
  
“Is there any form of technology you are comfortable with?”  
  
 **“I like amps. And electric keyboards.”**  
  
“Not even songwriting software?”  
  
 **“Sugar lumps, if I needed a computer to write my songs, I’d be a pretty shitty singer.”**  
  
“…I didn’t know you were writing songs.”  
  
 **“Well, dumpling dear, you never asked.”**  
  
“You are really scraping the bottom of the barrel, aren’t you?”  
  
 **“Why do you think it keeps taking me so long to call? I need time to come up with new ones.”**  
  
“…You were fairly punctual this time, Marshall Lee.”  
  
“…”  
  
“…”  
  
 **“Yeah, well, I told you I was trying to be better. Put a little note on the calendar and everything.”**  
  
“…”  
  
“…”  
  
“I do appreciate it, Marshall Lee.”  
  
 **“Don’t go hurting yourself there, cookie crisp. Wouldn’t want you to sprain yourself thanking me.”**  
  
“I’m hanging up now. Call me back soon.”  
  
***  
  
The calls began to come on a regular basis. Still, G.B. did not allow himself to hope.  
  
But. He also did not go to bed early on Saturday nights.  
  
***  
  
 **“What rhymes with Sephiroth?”**  
  
“I see now why you keep spending time with me. You wish to treat me as a rhyming dictionary since you are too intimidated by technology to utilize Google.”  
  
 **“Well…”**  
  
“…”  
  
 **“Aw, come on, pinky pie. I was joking.”**  
  
“No, I understand that. I was just thinking. What kind of song are you writing?”  
  
“…”  
  
“It’s not fair of you to keep utilizing me as a resource when you so jealously guard the final project.”  
  
 **“None of it’s done yet, gumdrop, that’s all.”**  
  
“You’re repeating yourself.”  
  
 **“Nah. That one’s not supposed to pull your tail.”**  
  
“…”  
  
“…”  
  
“…What about ‘goth?’”  
  
 **“…That’ll work. Thanks, gumdrop.”**  
  
“No.”  
  
***  
  
 **“How much water goes with rice? I keep trying and it keeps coming out weird.”**  
  
“It depends on how much rice you want to make and what kind.”  
  
 **“It’s rice. How is there a kind.”**  
  
“Is it white or brown?”  
  
 **“Oh. It’s brown.”**  
  
“Then you need two cups water and one cup of rice.”  
  
 **“That’s not a lot of rice, pixie stick.”**  
  
“You don’t eat very much anyway.”  
  
 **“Point. Gotcha.”**  
  
“…”  
  
“…”  
  
“Are you just going to call me about food out of the blue now?”  
  
 **“Well, since you’re there and you know how to cook… yeah. You sent me stuff. I’m trying to figure out what the heck to do with it.”**  
  
“Well, if you bought some asparagus and butter and used the rice and cashews, you could make a pilaf.”  
  
 **“That doesn’t sound like a real thing.”**  
  
“Only because you’re used to buying things out of cans. Get some asparagus and butter and call me back.”  
  
***  
  
 **“I took Simone out again today.”**  
  
“That’s good of you, Marshall Lee. Where did you go?”  
  
 **“The field museum. It helped, I think. She’s a paleontologist.”**  
  
“Really? You never mentioned that.”  
  
 **“There’s a lot you don’t know about her... There’s a lot _I_  don’t know about her.”**  
  
“…”  
  
“…”  
  
“Marshall Lee? Are you all right?”  
  
 **“Yeah, yeah, I’m okay. It just—sucks, ‘sall. Sometimes the crap they put her on helps, and sometimes—sometimes ‘slike she doesn’t know me anymore. Already.”**  
  
“…Marshall Lee, I’m sorry.”  
  
 **“It sucks. ‘N I’m lonely. Her house is too big. And I hate spending all this time in hospitals.”**  
  
“What’s the matter with hospitals?”  
  
 **“People _die_  in them.”**  
  
“…I know they do, Marshall Lee.”  
  
“...”  
  
“…”  
  
“…Do they have dinosaurs at the field museum? If so, I want to see them.”  
  
***  
  
 **“What’s new in the nerd life? I want to talk about something besides me.”**  
  
“Will wonders never cease.”  
  
 **“Fuck off, candy button.”**  
  
“Oh, all right.”  
  
“…”  
  
“…”  
  
 **“Does that mean you’re gonna tell me something, or does that mean you fucked off?”**  
  
“My life’s not all that interesting. I was trying to think of something good to tell you.”  
  
 **“Oh. Okay.”**  
  
“I got an A on my calculus test, but that is only to be expected… I suppose spring break is coming off. I get six days off, counting the weekend.”  
  
 **“Huh. That’s cool.”**  
  
***  
  
 **“G.B.”**  
  
“Marshall Lee, I had just gotten back to sleep—”  
  
 **“G.B.”**  
  
“ _What_?”  
  
 **“…Are you doing anything? With your break, I mean.”**  
  
“No. What would I do?”  
  
“…”  
  
“…”  
  
“If you’re not going to actually talk to me, I’m going back to bed.”  
  
 **“No, don’t—”**  
  
“You have thirty seconds to spit it out, Marshall Lee, or I am hanging up.”  
  
 **“…You could come here.”**  
  
“…What?”  
  
 **“I mean—I come over to your place all the time. You should. You should come here for once. You could—meet Simone. And stuff.”**  
  
“…”  
  
“…”  
  
 **“It was just a suggestion.”**  
  
“No, I—I would like that, Marshall Lee. Very much. It’s—it isn’t as though I have anything else to do.”  
  
 **“Screw you, gumdrop. You want to see me, too.”**  
  
“Perhaps I’m just very interested in paleontology.”  
  
 **“Well, then, you have to come. Maybe you can get her talking.”**  
  
“I will. It… it would be good.”  
  
 **“Yeah. Sorry—sorry I woke you up.”**  
  
“It isn’t as though I’m not used to it.”


End file.
